My 9 Problems With NCAA Strength & Conditioning Coaches

Strength Coach Dane Miller breaks down his 9 Problems With NCAA Strength & Conditioning Coaches that largely impact athletes like football players, wrestlers, track athletes etc.

#ncaa #strengthandconditioning #sportsperformance

[jarredmalcolm]

I played D3 football for 2 seasons at the age of 27 and 28 after getting out the army...when forced to do the “s&c coach’s blanket program” i would never make the gains(strength and speed wise) that i would when i would do “individualized” personal/positional programming...would come back after the summer with huge gains and theyd ask how i got them and id tell them “i threw away your program and got an individual one” haha they never enjoyed hearing that 💪🏻🏈🚒

[jordansmith]

I like how he becomes visibly more irritated the farther he goes down the list.

[Papa.BearOz]

#9. School schedule sets up the rest of the student athletes schedule. They have class during the day so it’s either before or after the school day. Sport coaches don’t want to practice before school so it’s the weight room at 5-7am

[cartermoore]

First one is so factual I’m a D3 swimmer I never had an injury until I started having 5am weights every morning, it’s just too early to get enough sleep and it leaves me taking naps all the time too

[turkeyhunter]

My kid was picked on a little about his weight lifting shoes by his buddies this year. They learned quick when they heard those shoes “clack” on the floor, he was probably doing more weight than any of them. They have since started asking where they can get some.

[colemoos]

Dane, as a former power 5 football player(2016/2017), P5 S&C intern(2018), and now a HS strength coach in Oklahoma, I thought I'd share a few of my own thoughts and experiences on your list. Thankfully the staff I played and interned under had some great coaches that I was able to learn from, and continue to learn from now. First off, solid video, and I would agree as I've seen all of these issues in NCAA and even high school strength and conditioning. Number 6: I once heard a P5 football S&C coach tell his team that they weren't allowed to wear knee sleeves or weightlifting shoes because they aren't "weightlifters" and then go on to use many weightlifting movements in their training, which makes no sense at all to me. I also know for sure of two P5 football schools that perform all cleans, including max attempts, in straps. Mind boggling to me. Number 3: I see your point on the gadgets, but I also think if used correctly they can be very useful. I'm a big believer in tracking data(running speed/volume, bar velocity at times, force plates) and I believe that collegiate athletes are perfectly capable of benefiting from those tools. I believe that these tools can help the coach with programming, more so than the athlete knowing their bar velocity or what have you. Number 2 on your list drives me crazy as well, and I hate to admit it but I even have some close friends in the field that believe the olympic lifts are 'too hard to teach' and believe that sprints, jumps, or throws provide the EXACT SAME benefit. Number 1 just shows that it's often a 'who you know' field not 'what you know.' This can allow people who really don't know what their doing to get really high paying jobs at big school. Anyways, just my 2 cents. -Cole Moos

[rdog]

This man is Joel Seedman’s worst nightmare...good job!

[johnledieff]

Oh man, I totally agree. We had to lift at 6:00 a.m. when I was in College. I lost strength, couldn’t figure out why.

[martymorse]

Excellent presentation. I worked for 25 years as the Head S&C Coach with elite wheelchair athletes at a Big Ten University. I was the first traumatic spinal cord injured paraplegic to become a certified NSCA S&C coach. Our athletes had the highest standards of biomechanical evaluation of each lift and they were supervised by two or three certified coaches at all times. We were light years ahead of any other program in the world for wheelchair athletes. We were also ahead of the D-1 able-bodied S&C program on our campus in technical sophistication. Tried to talk training theory with the head S&C coach in the 1990s and he had no idea what I was talking about. Thanks again for your honesty. You are on point with all nine issues, especially the early morning workouts, shoes and periodization. Enjoy your work.

[WilliamsWrestlin]

I'll never forget when I asked my coach if I can wear my adi powers and he kept saying they were coming. They never came and I'm still scratching my head as to why he didn't just let me bring my own when my old strength coach allowed it

[huihui]

"Don't start before 9am"
As a swimmer in the ACC conference, I have already trained 3.5 hours by 9am...cheers to yall sleeping

[jonjacobs]

I've had trouble with all of these problems, transitioning from 4 years as a pac-12 football player to a conference five one, I believe another problem that arrises especially with the periodization, is the fluctuation of coaching staffs. I went through 7 offensive line coaches in 5 years, 3 strength coaches and 3 different head coaches. Without consistency my teammates and I were constantly shuffled into new strength programs and it sucked.

[ryantennant]

I run track at the University of Oregon, so I had to watch when I saw coach Feld in the thumbnail! As a team we work primarily with coach Radcliffe for S&C. Legend of a coach, love working with him.

[austinmassengale]

I’m an aspiring strength and conditioning coach (currently 21 years old) and I’m so glad I saw this video because it gives me confidence in myself because I had a lot of these thoughts beforehand and now I know I’ll be ahead of the other coaches. I’ll never understand number one why on most programs you see 4x8 squats at 60% and absolutely no warm up whatsoever. Sure, if you’re the first guy at squats you might get some time to hit the bar or maybe a 135lbs weight. But if you’re 60% is in the 250lbs range it’s LUDICROUS that you would have an athlete come in and immediately start hitting that for 8 reps. It blows my mind. So my solution for that would be increase the sets to accommodate for 30, 40, 50 percent sets for warmups. Additionally this would require fewer exercises which is another point you made so that there is more focus on specific movements. Additionally if I’m gonna have an athlete squat 250lbs for 8 reps I want them in squat shoes or even better if they want to knee sleeves and a belt (I don’t like belts for less than 80% range but it’s debatable by some I’m sure). I also can’t stand the complication of exercises. I don’t care what anyone says Olympic weightlifters are the best squatters. And some of the best Olympic weightlifters are Chinese. I have yet to see them throw bands and chains and all other kinds of crazy stuff on the squat bar and “mix things up”. Are these training methods affective? I would say to a degree depending on the level of the athlete. But like you said, if these guys are high school or collegiate level they need to focus on the movement itself. Let the NFL or pro guys teach them how to increase their strength after they’ve already maxed out their bodies by adding different modalities but it’s ridiculous to take an athlete fresh out of high school and say “hey bud go immediately into squats without a warmup in running shoes and also there’s bands on each side”. I know I’m naive and young and have a lot to learn but just being observant and researching I’ve already seen a ton of mistakes

[jeffreyhuet]

I couldn’t love this video more. High school coaches need to watch this. Thanks!

[genebaker]

Great video. Another topic to discuss is the effect of high school coaches using a college level S&C program with their teams. I think this multiples the problems you discuss about 10 fold. You can't train a high school athlete like a collegian. They need a strong base.

[jamesromaniw]

Former D1 s&c coach (currently a high school s&c)

#9. Student athletes are typically in class from 7:30/8am until 3-4ish, at which they go to practice. We train early do that we can get them done before breakfast hall closes. Not ideal but it's the way it is.
#8-2: on freaking point
#1. Take home packets typically don't reflect a program very well, most are written to be very basic as most kids don't follow it anyway, we just want them to do something. Always happy to see a guy or girl get a private coach during the summer, the packet is meant to be better-than-nothing

[existentialerasure]

A track and field/throws coach is usually the best strength coach IMHO. Great video!

[scottcollinssportsperforma]

Great video. The mention of exercise selection and not enough sets is something I see a lot. Young S&C coaches try and overcomplicate their programs.

[dsp]

Man I had clients in high school say yeh 9am was perfect ... still sleep so this number 9 is on point at 3-5pm they’re on time and ready to go